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Visit Japan Web — Pre-Arrival Registration Guide

·JEMS Team·Travel Logistics
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The 10 Minutes That Save You an Hour

Before you board your flight to Japan, there is one task that will make your arrival dramatically smoother: registering on Visit Japan Web. This is the official digital service operated by Japan's Digital Agency that lets you complete your immigration and customs declarations online before you land. Instead of filling out paper forms on the plane and waiting in long queues at the airport, you present a single QR code at immigration and customs and move through quickly.

Visit Japan Web is not an app you download from an app store. It is a web-based service that runs in your phone's browser. There is no app to install — you simply go to the website, create an account, and fill in your details. The official URL is vjw.digital.go.jp and the information page is at services.digital.go.jp/en/visit-japan-web/.

Using Visit Japan Web is not mandatory. You can still fill out paper arrival cards and customs declaration forms on the plane or at the airport. But the digital route is faster, and at major airports like Narita, Haneda, Kansai, and Fukuoka, the electronic declaration lanes are typically much shorter than the paper-form queues.

Do You Need a Visa?

Before worrying about Visit Japan Web, confirm whether you need a visa at all. Japan has visa exemption arrangements with 74 countries and regions. Citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and most EU countries can enter Japan for tourism without a visa for up to 90 days. Citizens of Indonesia and Thailand receive 15 days, Brunei and Qatar receive 30 days.

The full list is maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan at mofa.go.jp. Some countries require an ICAO-compliant ePassport for visa-free entry — check the specific notes for your nationality.

If you do need a visa, you can link your visa details within Visit Japan Web after obtaining it. The system allows you to enter your visa issue number and pull in the relevant information automatically.

What You Need Before You Start

Have these ready before you begin registration:

  • Your passport — you'll either scan the data page with your phone's camera or enter the details manually
  • Your email address — needed to create your account
  • Your flight details — airline name, flight number, and departure city
  • Your accommodation address in Japan — hotel name, address, postal code, and phone number. Your first hotel booking confirmation has all of this
  • About 10 minutes — the entire process is straightforward

Step-by-Step Registration

Step 1: Create Your Account

Go to vjw.digital.go.jp in your phone's browser (Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android). The service is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Tap "Create new account." You'll need to:

  1. Agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
  2. Enter your email address
  3. Create a password (10+ characters, must include uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols)
  4. Complete the "I am human" verification
  5. Enter the confirmation code sent to your email

Keep the confirmation screen open until the process completes — if you close it, the code is invalidated and you'll need to start over.

Multi-factor authentication via an authenticator app (Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator) is available but optional.

Step 2: Register Your Details

After logging in, tap "Your Details" on the home screen. You'll be asked:

  • Do you have a Japanese passport? — Select "No" (you're a foreign visitor)
  • Do you have a re-entry permit? — Select "No" (unless you're a resident of Japan)
  • Will you use tax-free QR code? — Select "Yes" if you plan to make tax-free purchases during your trip (recommended — it's useful at electronics stores, department stores, and other retailers)

Next, register your passport information. You can either scan your passport's data page with your phone's camera (recommended — it auto-fills most fields) or enter the details manually. The system reads:

  • Passport number
  • Surname and given name
  • Nationality
  • Date of birth
  • Date of expiry

Then enter your basic information: occupation and home address (country and city).

Step 3: Register Your Trip

Tap "Register new planned entry/return" on the home screen. Enter:

  • Trip name (optional — defaults to your arrival date)
  • Planned arrival date in Japan
  • Airline company name — select from the dropdown
  • Flight number
  • Point of embarkation — your departure city
  • Address in Japan — your hotel's postal code, prefecture, city, address, hotel name, and a contact phone number

If you're traveling with family, you can register up to 10 family members under your account and include them in the same trip.

Step 4: Complete Immigration and Customs Declaration

This is the core step. From your registered trip, tap "Immigration clearance and Customs declaration." You'll fill out two sets of questions:

Immigration (Disembarkation Card for Foreigner):

  • Purpose of visit (tourism, business, etc.)
  • Intended length of stay
  • Questions about criminal history, deportation history, drug possession, and other standard immigration screening items

Customs Declaration (Accompanied Articles):

  • Whether you're carrying items that exceed duty-free allowances
  • Whether you're carrying prohibited or restricted items (firearms, drugs, certain food products)
  • Quantities of alcohol, tobacco, and perfume
  • Details of any items with a market value exceeding ¥10,000 per item

For most tourists, the customs section is quick — you'll answer "No" to most questions and enter zero for most quantities.

After confirming your entries, the system generates a single unified QR code that covers both immigration clearance and customs declaration. Since January 2024, these have been combined into one QR code (previously they were separate).

Step 5: Display Your QR Code

Tap "Display QR Code" on your trip's procedure page. You'll see a QR code on screen. This is what you'll show at the airport.

The Screenshot Strategy: JEMS's Top Tip

Here's something the official instructions don't emphasize enough: take a screenshot of your QR code before you board your flight.

When you land in Japan, you may not have working internet. Your phone might not connect to airport Wi-Fi immediately. Your international data plan might take a few minutes to activate. The immigration hall at Narita or Haneda is not the place to discover that you can't load a webpage.

The QR code for immigration and customs works from a screenshot. Take one (or several) before you leave home or at the departure airport where you have reliable connectivity.

How to screenshot your QR code:

  • iPhone: Press the side button and volume up button simultaneously
  • Android: Press the power button and volume down button simultaneously

Save the screenshot somewhere easy to find — your phone's photo favorites, or take a note of where it is. Some travelers set the QR code screenshot as their lock screen wallpaper for the flight, which guarantees instant access.

Important exception: The tax-free shopping QR code (used at stores during your trip) cannot be used from a screenshot — it must be displayed live from the Visit Japan Web service. But the immigration and customs QR code works fine from a saved image.

Visit Japan Web also supports offline usage. You can add the site to your home screen (on iPhone via Safari's share menu → "Add to Home Screen"; on Android via Chrome's menu → "Add to Home screen"), which installs it as a progressive web app that can display your QR code without an internet connection — as long as you've logged in and loaded the page while online beforehand.

At the Airport: What Happens When You Land

Immigration

After deplaning and following the signs to immigration (入国審査), you'll see two types of lanes:

  1. Electronic gates / QR code lanes — scan your QR code at the terminal, then proceed to the immigration officer who will check your passport and take your photo and fingerprints
  2. Standard lanes — for travelers with paper arrival cards

The QR code lane is typically faster. Present your QR code (on screen or from your screenshot) to the scanner. The system reads your pre-registered immigration data. You'll still need to show your passport to the officer and complete biometric registration (photograph and fingerprints) — the QR code doesn't skip this step, but it eliminates the manual data entry.

Baggage Claim

Collect your luggage from the carousel as usual. At Haneda Airport, Fukuoka Airport, and Naha Airport, you can use the electronic declaration terminal to complete your customs declaration while waiting for your bags — a nice time-saver.

Customs

After collecting your bags, proceed to customs (税関). You'll see:

  1. Electronic declaration terminals — scan your QR code here. The terminal reads your customs declaration data. If everything checks out, you'll receive clearance to proceed through the electronic declaration gate
  2. Standard inspection tables — for travelers with paper declaration forms

If the electronic terminal flags anything (or if you declared items that need inspection), you'll be directed to a customs officer for further review. For most tourists with nothing to declare beyond personal belongings, the electronic process takes under a minute.

Traveling with Family

If you're traveling with your partner, children, or other family members, you have two options:

  1. Register everyone under one account — you can add up to 10 family members to your Visit Japan Web account and register them on the same trip. Each person gets their own QR code, but you manage everything from one login
  2. Separate accounts — each adult creates their own account. This is simpler if everyone has their own phone

For families with young children, the single-account approach is usually easier. You can also submit customs declarations for accompanying family members at the same time, which saves repeating the same answers.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  1. Waiting until the plane to register — in-flight Wi-Fi is unreliable and slow. Complete registration at home or at the departure airport
  2. Not screenshotting the QR code — don't rely on loading the website after landing
  3. Entering the wrong flight number — use the actual operating flight number, not a codeshare number
  4. Forgetting your hotel address — have your booking confirmation accessible. You need the postal code, full address, and phone number
  5. Confusing Visit Japan Web with unofficial apps — the Japanese government has warned about suspicious apps like "Visit Japan Web Info." The only legitimate service is at vjw.digital.go.jp, operated by Japan's Digital Agency
  6. Not registering family members — each person entering Japan needs their own QR code, including children

Quick Reference

The Bottom Line

Visit Japan Web is one of those small preparation steps that makes a disproportionate difference. Ten minutes of registration at home translates to a faster, calmer arrival in Japan. Screenshot your QR code, have your passport ready, and you'll move through Narita or Haneda while other travelers are still filling out paper forms with tiny airline pens.

Your trip to Japan starts before you board the plane. Start it right.

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